Pictures With My Best Friend
by smilingsollux
Summary: Butters Stotch remembers Kenny McCormick. Most importantly, he remembers that Kenny McCormick dies. And he waits for him. A short one-shot about their friendship and love. Fluff. A bit of Angst/Death. Rated T to be safe.


**Title: **Pictures of my Best Friend

**Pairing: **Bunny (KennyxButters) Implied Dip (DamienxPip) Candy (CartmanxWendy)

**Disclaimer: **I do not own South Park.

**A/N: **It's in first person and present and past tense because Butters is talking "now", but remembering "then". Post Kenny dying of a terminal illness for the second time in his life. Mostly my own headcanons but I try to keep them in character.

**Start:**

**One: We Meet**

Kenny's always been real tall; the kind of tall where I gotta turn my head up just to see his face. I guess I'm just real short, too, but I don't remember the last time we saw eye to eye, but I guess I can try. I don't know why I still talk about him as if he's still alive. But, if I think hard enough about it, it was probably when we were about eight that I saw him at eye level.

He had this stupid grin on his face when we first met, like he knew something I didn't and his eyes were real bright, too, even though he didn't have many things to be happy about. No one ever remembered that he died and his family was a wreck and yet there he always was when he came back, smiling and cheerful and all.

_I_ remembered. I always remembered that Kenny McCormick died.

We were supposed to be making friends that day, like our teacher said, but he just looked at me like there was something funny on my face and grinned at me. That was the first time I saw him without his hood and also the last for many years.

When he laughed at my stutter and said it was cute, and he called me Buttercup, I couldn't ignore the fact that I liked his voice and the way he smiled at me all nicely and stuff, and the way his blue eyes sparkled when he pulled out a dirty magazine from his parka. It was so amazing to be friends with Kenny.

It's really dumb but that's how I met Kenny McCormick. And when he left that day after school I couldn't help but follow him. When I asked him if he wanted to hang out again he smiled and said, "Sure," and we did. We did hang out again after that, many many times.

**Two: We Break**

In this memory, the street lamp outside my house that he was standing under was flickering and hurting my eyes. I was peering out of my window and squinting. "Kenny?"

The sky looked really angry, kinda like an ocean before a storm! It was dark and alarming because something bad could have happen and Kenny could have gotten struck by lighting and died again. I never ever liked it when he died.

I still don't like it when he dies. He always leaves for days and after he comes back he doesn't smile until almost weeks after, and by that time he's long overdue to die again.

I find myself being stuck in this place in my memory forever; leaning out of my window and hoping the wind will carry my voice out to him. "K-Kenny, you're ah, gonna get sick out there! G-go on and meet me ah, at the back door, you hear me? I'll let you in so you can get dry!"

He's close again, to dying in this memory, I mean. I can tell 'cause Kenny always did do stupid things when he knew he was gonna die again soon. He had a fight with his parents and told 'em to go to Hell. Like a cruel and ironic joke, huh? He always came and still does come to me when it's about to happen 'cause he knows that for some reason, I remember that he dies.

He came in through the back door of my house that night and I took him upstairs to my room, being all careful so my parents didn't find out because they ain't ever liked him. I closed my door and quickly striped off his parka, which was soaked through with rain. He just sat on my bed and let me do it. I didn't know if he was crying or if it was just the rain, but I hugged him.

I think what I remember the most about that cold night is the feeling of the fabric of his shirt against my face and the sweet soft and fresh scent of him that envelops me when he hugged me for the last time  
>that week.<p>

Kenny died the next day after a freak boating accident that was probably Cartman's fault caused him to drown in Stark's Pond. I wasn't there to see it, but I was waiting patiently when he got back.

**Three: We Return**

I had been having a bad day when I found out he was back from wherever he went when he died, "Hell," he said when I asked him and stuff, but I don't ever think I believed it. He came back when I was in school and all I remember is that he was leaning down over me with a frightened storm of blue eyes and the curtain of his blond hair sweeping over his face.

He was ah, boyish, even with the serious look on that pretty face of his.

Eric Cartman had taken a liking to bullying me when ever Kenny wasn't around to tell him to shove off.

He helped me stand up and ruffled my hair with his hands, grinning that stupid smile at me again. I'd been lying there for the first half of the lunch period, not really wanting to move because I didn't feel like it at all. But when Kenny showed up I smiled and my motivation came back, "Hiya, Kenny."

It was weird because he smiled at me even though he'd just gotten back from 'Hell' and he never smiled when he got back. He usually complained a whole lot about Damien and Pip being disgustingly involved with each other while he was there but he never smiled.

I know why he smiled, too. That night he took me home and in the dark of my room I held up my arms to him and embraced him in the most intimate way possible. I told him about what he'd missed when he was gone, mostly about Cartman and Wendy starting to date and how they'd disappeared for a few days, probably to a different country. But mostly I just hugged him and kept him close, 'cause I'd really missed him.

"I missed you, too, Buttercup," he smiled at me with tired blue eyes and kissed me on the mouth. It was warm and wet and I really liked it.

"D-don't leave again-again for that l-long, Kenny," I can still feel the hot tears that slid down my face and the tingling feeling of having him kiss them away from me.

He promised that he wouldn't leave again and I had my best friend back again.

**Four: We Fall**

"We're gonna make memories, Buttercup," he said. I can still hear his voice in my ear as we lay in the grass, his left arm around my shoulders, his other stretched up and holding my camera. I giggled at him and ducked when he kissed my cheek and took the picture.

I was real tired that day and I felt like I'd been hit by a train but I was real happy, too. I could have been floating up there with the clouds and swaying in the breeze. It was a happy day and we were playing by Stark's Pond, not too far away from the place where he'd died that one time and the other time, too. But it didn't seem to bother him.

Kenny died a lot.

He got distracted by something and I watched him snap a picture of the ducks and I watched a butterfly with blue wings flutter by above my head. That was one of our happier days. Although I gotta admit that every day with Kenny is a happy one.

My skin was damp from the dew in the grass and my hair was sticking to my face but I didn't even mind that I was dirty because Kenny was smiling again. The last time he'd died had been a week before that day. Everything tingled again when he settled in next to me and took my hand in his. I always liked making memories because it was the only time we got to spend time together anymore.

With my head on his shoulder, I fell asleep, his arms tightly around me and his heart right by my ear. His friends picked on him the first time we held hands in public, but that was a year ago and now he doesn't even seem to care.

When I woke up later that day he was looking at the darkened sky with an arm behind his head, the other was my pillow. He was all thoughtful looking and when I looked up at him he sighed and he said, "Buttercup, I'm dying."

**Five: We End**

I remember like it was yesterday even though it's been six months since he died. Before he did he said it would take a lot longer for him to come back because it wasn't gonna be an accident. But he promised he'd come back even though he hasn't yet. And I don't care what anyone tells me, I am always gonna be here for him even if he doesn't come back. I believe him! I really do believe in Kenny McCormick.

Even so, I can still feel him slipping away from me, kinda like a ribbon that slides out of your fingers. It's kind of like a cold hand wrapped around my heart and it makes everything hurt.

He'd told me not to worry so much, 'cause he always came back. He'd smiled and joked and started to cough up blood. At the end I couldn't even be near him when he died. The doctors took me out of his room.

No one remembered that he always died but me, so everyone made a huge big deal about it like when he was real little and got sick. Even I made a big deal out of it. Mostly 'cause the way other people acted about it made me panic, too. 'Cause what if he didn't come back? What was I gonna do without him?

I told him before they made me get out of his hospital room that I wish I was the one who died this time, just so he wouldn't be in anymore pain. He called me stupid and said that if I died I wouldn't come back and that he'd find a million ways to kill himself over and over again just so he could go see me.

My dad came to get me just as Kenny was about to go. He tried to make me leave but I begged him, "N-no, dad, I ah … I can't, I can't!"

He let me stay and I watched Kenny's life end again. All I could think was that I felt real stupid for crying, and yet I couldn't even stop myself as I fell on the floor and covered my face and said one thing over and over again. "I love you, I love you … I love you …"

**Six: We Go On**

Right now I'm here again. I'm standing at his grave by myself, and the words, "I really miss you," aren't enough to describe what I feel. They fall into the empty of the day like nothing. I haven't gone to school in a couple of days and I just don't really care anymore. The fellas came by to talk to me but I told 'em to go away if they were gonna say that Kenny couldn't come back to life because that was irrational.

I believe in him, I really do.

The grave marker is by itself surrounded by fresh flowers that the people in South Park that love him have left there. Like he really is gone. Thinking about it makes me feel real tight in my chest and I wanna cry again. "H-h-hurry up and ah, come back, Kenny, I really miss you, Kenny. Kenny, Kenny," I rub my face with my sleeve and sniffle.

I know that if he were here he'd giggle at all the flowers and sniff them and then smile and I'd be all happy again. I've been standing here for over an hour just staring, my pathetic daisy still clutched in my hand. I don't wanna give it to him. It'd be like admitting that he's gone for good and I know that he isn't. I have to know that he isn't. so I keep coming back.

I've been hiding with myself more lately, I really miss him very much and I miss the way that he hugged me and snuck into my room all of those times and kissed me, too. I even missed when he laughed at me for saying something funny.

I come back every day! Because I know that I gotta be right here for him when he comes back from 'Hell'. I accepted it. I don't know why I'm the only one that knows but I'm real happy about it. It's horrible, but at least he doesn't gotta harbor all of his constant deaths by himself. I will never turn around and wave good-bye like everyone else. They'll all forget that he died after he comes back again anyway. Only I will remember what it's like to miss Kenny McCormick.

I will just stay here and talk to his grave because I know he's listening from wherever he is until he can come and talk back to me. "I love you."

I know I'll be waiting right here 'till he gets back.

**Seven: We Unite**

I am sitting by myself plucking rotting weeds from around his grave, humming to myself. I got my back to his grave marker and it's a real sunny day. I don't know why I'm happy but I have the best feeling in the world.

It's really nice and I smile happily and duck my head when warm and familiar arms wrap around me and a soft voice murmurs in my ear, "Did you miss me, Buttercup?"

I turn to him and throw my arms around his shoulders, grinning with tears in my eyes, "Only every single day, Kenny McCormick."

**End.**


End file.
